Melendez was serving life in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of murder.

Authorities have said 17-year-old Jill Montgomery and two friends were killed because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Prosecutors said a man hired David Spence to kill a girl but he mistook Montgomery for that girl. According to trial testimony, Melendez and his brother helped Spence carry out the killings.

Gilbert Melendez died in 1998 while serving a life sentence. Spence was executed in 1997.